Let the people stare,
cause we are who we are.

Okay let's see. Fridays are my off days. I had this inkling to get back on track with Amore and be able to use their gym too because they had always been the most affordable fitness centre in Singapore [I think] but now they've upped their prices to almost twice the initial price - albeit with several more benefits - but STILL. Now I'm back to the drawing board on deciding on how to keep myself fit.

But you know, everytime I sign up with them in the past, I feel a little sad that I'm actually spending money to be cooped up in a class when I can probably enjoy similar benefits for a lot less outdoors. And I'd rather not commit myself to any contracts of other fitness centres [if i'm not wrong, Amore still isn't contract-based] until I'm pretty sure I can afford regular classes comfortably. I really long to experiment with yoga, pilates and maybe kickboxing once again. (:

That aside, I went to the library at Orchard on Wednesday with good ol' Shimmy. Borrowed two books, each one a trilogy so I kinda have six new books to read now. Yay! After town, we went all the way to Pasir Ris Park and found this great place, The Blue Hut. We merely ordered can drinks [which cost $3 each BY THE WAY] and we couldn't eat cause it wasn't halal but the place itself was really very nice.

Yesterday was kinda a really bad day for me. I think it had to do with how worked up I was over Kiki and now that my mom has left for Jakarta, I'm the one who has to give her her medicine and it's hard. Really. It just makes me so sad to have to do that to my cat [cat's don't simply eat their medicine, by the way] and it makes me so sad to see her become weaker and weaker as the days pass.

And I don't know how to make her feel more comfortable, really I don't. I don't know if I'm irritating her when she just wants to be left alone or if I'm actually doing it right and showing her I love her.

Anyway, I've removed the StatCounter tracking thingie. I didn't see the point of attempting to turn everything into a popularity poll.

Aah, yesterday was the final day of the 'Masih Ada Harapan' workshop [check out page 2 of yesterday's BH!]. I felt so lethargic. Probably because before the actual event, I was left waiting for my friends at Kallang. THAT, combined with the day I had really made me feel like crying and I'm just glad I had Shimmy to keep me company. Over the phone, but company nonetheless.

----

Okay, just finished my CS report. I'm really proud of it. =) It took me slightly over three hours to do just four pages but I had fun immersing myself in work for a change.

Oh, life goes on,
& it's only gonna make me strong.

Okay, a few overdue pictures of my journal. (: Isn't it pretty?

Thanks again, Shimmy! :P I think I only just decided to take pictures of it because I'm so free right now [well, not really] and I just penned my virgin entry in there.



So you see - I can only bake so many cookies at one time since my oven at home is positively miniscule.

Last night we watched FlightPlan together. Ooh it's good! I love movies with a twist.

And I'm in the process of baking a fresh batch of cookies. (: This time, they're slightly bigger in size and I love them! They look cute. I'm not too sure about the taste though, but I just know that they look delish! =D

Adorable little round thingies with uneven itsy-bitsy chocolate bits poking out!

I'm eating them right now. I think they taste o-kay, seeing how I have low expectations of my own baking. I don't dare trust my friends' tastebuds either because I still think they're trying to "be nice". =P

She's no you.

But, you know, I spent a long time baking those cookies [less than half the batter has been used up because it took me over three hours of anxious hovering over the oven] and at least I had my trusty laptop and dvd - The 40-Year-Old Virgin - to keep my company.

So it has been a busy couple of days. Went over to Nat's house [at Bayshore, WOW!] this morning to do our German dialogue and recording. Spent a really exasperating three hours there because the programme was a little messed up. But the view from her apartment made it for it. :)

ALL the cookies have been eaten up. :D

I'm not too sure why I am no longer able to view my pictures on Imageshack. Does anyone know why?

Grrr. It's annoying.

Just hold me close to you...

I'm feeling great right now. I'm loving my new journal too. Thank youu. (:

I went to Orchard library for the first time ever just now. Although I didn't quite make it to the study or the books section, we [my cs1105 groupmates and I] were at the Cafe, just discussing our project. The meeting was short - took less than an hour but we spent the rest of the time talking about our past years at JC or for them, before they moved here, when they were still in China.

Anyhoo, yeh. Just feeling darn good. Must be because Ki's looking healthier. You know, she was always my study partner? Every night, without fail, she'd be somewhere nearby, falling asleep in all sorts of peculiar poses. I miss her, I love her.

Such a lovely place,
Such a lovely face.

Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget.

Yesterday night we went out together as a family for dinner. It's reallyy funny. Noreen suggested going to Jalan Kayu but I protested because I was having a stomach ache so I wanted to go somewhere nearby - Abah decided on Changi Airport but every restaurant there was wayy too crowded so we ended up eating at Macs. By that time, my stomach ache was gone so we decided to go for a drive all the way to Seletar [near Jalan Kayu] and we detoured back to Pasir Ris Park before reaching home at nearly midnight.

Oh my dad is a HUGE Eagles fan. He kept playing Hotel California in the car yesterday. Like, really several times!

I slept with Noreen last night. I didn't dare sleep alone. Not going to say why here but some things really spooked me and I'm still very spooked right now and I hate this feeling but I think I'll be bunking in with her again tonight.

Kiki went for the dialysis again this morning. The vet said she's doing well but please continue to pray for her.

You knoww..I'm really touched when people actually ask me about her. Haha, my baby whaat.

"Masih Ada Harapan" meeting at Muhammadiyah just now.

East Coast. East Coast. East Coast. Can anyone not love the beach?

"Teroka Seni" meeting tomorrow, Computing module meeting tomorrow.

I wonder when I'll actually work on my PS essay. Heh.

The barbeque
Cookin' everything from butts to guts -- and sometimes nuts.

Firstly, I gotta say that this is a really picture-heavy post. So if you're not interested, don't bother scrolling down, lol. It's just how we spent today as a family - preparing a barbeque dinner. =)

So that's us at the supermarket. The lion dance troop..my sister is terrified of them. She has this strange phobia. When they passed by, she was hiding behind all of us, her face red, making weird noises that sounded like little screams and she was tearing up. Kesian right?! But yeah. She's always had a phobia of lion dance troops. It was especially funny just now because when they passed, we were actually in the middle of a dispute over what items to get and when they did pass and she started her reaction, we all stopped and started laughing. Hahah.


Yeah. We've been busy. My eldest sister is the Master Chef in our house. She comes up with all these incredible, fabulous recipes and we just savour the outcome. And see! I tried to help! "Ok Ira, you sayang the chicken enough already." And she gave me this LOOK when I suggested removing the skin so we could have skinless chicken. Haha.



Do the pictures make you hungry? It made me! I was wondering how anyone can cook when I was already so tempted to start eating. First one is the fruit salad, second one the marinated chicken and the third, bee hoon in the making!

Ok sidetrack! That's Kiki's medicine. So kesian, right? But we managed to hide it within her food and she ate it all up. =D Good girl!



Anyway, the barbeque itself started at 8pm:



Presenting the Master Chef.. & Miran tried to grill his papadom!




"Get me a bucket of water, just in case!"
"No but look! There's a pond!"
[I swear, the kids had more fun messing about.]








Baby Ismail, Amir, Amirah. [Amir and Amirah are twins! Adorable, huh? =)]



Happy faces, happy stomachs. =)

Yepp, that's about it. Lovely day for a barbeque, though it was a VERY spontaneous decision. But I think everyone had fun and it gave us a great chance to just meet up and spend some time together before they went back to KL. If it had been one day earlier, Myrza and his family would have been able to join us but he's gone back to Perth so OH WELL.

Maybe next time we'll get Azmir AND Myrza. [Azmir, you hearread?!]

So much for losing weight with that jog this morning. Was it only this morning? Sheesh.

Auf Wiedersehen! =)

I actually managed to drag my lazy bum out of bed this morning for an invigorating jog. =D I'm trying to keep this up, kays? Haha it was funny because my mom walked while I jogged and halfway, I met her again [we were moving towards each other] and when she saw me, she just turned around and started walking back happily as though she had been ahead of me all along while there I was, trying my best not to call it quits. Hahah. I didn't jog that much though, I was reluctant to move off initially - we were just walking together at first, talking.






So then after that, we came home to a yummy breakkie. Kacang pool! But my mom's not allowing me to eat eggs! She says [k this might be gross!], she says that patients abstain from eggs after a surgery to prevent pus or something so I should abstain too until my complexion clears. Grrr. Then she decided, very kindly, that I could just take the egg whites not the yolk but I wanted the yolk because it looked so runny! I like to mix the yolk with whatever I'm eating. Haha!

Kiki seems alot better today. I suppose it's because of the dialysis. My mom predicts she'll feel worse tomorrow and on Tuesday, she'll be getting the drip again so she might perk up then. Please please please pray for my cat. I know she has to go someday. Just let it be as painless as possible for her.



Yesterday I was supposed to study but I was hardly able to concentrate. Was too worked up over Kiki. I had retail therapy [well, just ONE scarf from Accessorize] and comfort eating instead. Hurray to Mrs Field's and her goodies. Heh.

Yesterday night, my relatives came over. Soo kecoh! Haha. I kinda miss my cousins. I wish we could all go on another holiday to somewhere far away and really fun. Now everyone's spread out all over the world what with their studies and stuff and goodness knows when we'll ever meet up as one big gang again. One of my cousins just got engaged recently and my sisters and I couldn't make it. I know we're not close as cousins since she lives in Malaysia but STILL.

I wonder if we're going out later... gonna disturb Noreen. She's still in bed, can you believe that?!